Iowa State announces Caleb Grill is no longer with the program

Iowa State guard Caleb Grill is no longer with the program due to a “failure to meet the program’s expectations,” the Cyclones announced Wednesday. He ranks third on the roster in scoring this season.

In 25 games this season, including 22 starts, Grill averaged 9.5 points per game while shooting a team-high 36.8% from three-point territory. He also averaged 4.0 rebounds and 1.4 assists per contest.

Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger released a brief statement on the matter, citing the expectations the program has.

“We hold our players to high standards and there are expectations that our student-athletes are held accountable for,” Otzelberger said.

Grill saw his minutes dip in his last three games after missing time with a back injury. Monday night against West Virginia, he didn’t score a point and pulled down two rebounds in 19 minutes of action. That came after he scored seven points in 28 minutes against Oklahoma and a scoreless outing in 12 minutes against TCU.

Grill started his career at Iowa State in 2019-20 before transferring to UNLV for the 2020-21 season. After averaging 9.1 points per game for Otzelberger and the Rebels, he entered the transfer portal again and followed his coach back to Ames, where he played in all 35 games last year. His numbers this year were the best of his career.

Iowa State is 17-12 overall and 8-9 in Big 12 play entering Saturday’s regular-season finale against Baylor. The Cyclones came in as a No. 6 seed in ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology earlier this week. They’re still waiting to find out what seed they’ll be in the Big 12 Tournament, as well. According to playoffstatus.com, Iowa State has a 43% chance of staying the No. 6 seed, a 32% chance of jumping to the No. 5 seed and a 25% chance of dropping to the No. 7 seed.